FEBRUARY 11, 2025 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING

Lincoln City Hall, Council Chambers

700 Broadway Street | Lincoln, Illinois

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

The Committee of the Whole Meeting of the City Council of Lincoln was called to order by Mayor Tracy Welch at 6:11 p.m., with proper notice given. City Clerk Peggy Bateman called roll.

Present:

Alderwoman Robin McClallen, Ward 1

Alderman Steve Parrott, Ward 1

Alderman David Sanders, Ward 2

Alderman Sam Downs, Ward 2

Alderman Kevin Bateman, Ward 3

Alderwoman Wanda Lee Rohlfs, Ward 3

Alderwoman Rhonda O’Donoghue, Ward 4

Staff Present:

Peggy Bateman, City Clerk

Chuck Conzo, City Treasurer

John Hoblit, City Attorney

Wes Woodhall, Building and Safety Officer

Ty Johnson, Fire Chief

Joe Meister, Police Chief – left after public participation

Walt Landers, Streets Superintendent

Andrew Bowns, Veolia Water, Project Manager

Absent:

Alderman Craig Eimer, Ward 4

Presiding:

Mayor Tracy Welch

Public Participation

There was no one present for public participation

Request to Permit:

Lincoln Railsplitter Antique Auto Club, Cars & Coffee. Closure of 100 block of S. Kickapoo St between Broadway & Pulaski St from 8am until 11am for the following dates… April 26^th, May 24^th, June 28^th, July 26^th, and September 27^th.

This item will be placed on the consent agenda.

Ordinance authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement for participation in the Illinois Public Works Mutual Aid Network (IPWMAN)

The City has been a member with IPWMAN since 2018. They changed some of their policies and procedures and requested a new Intergovernmental Agreement be signed.

This item will be placed on the regular agenda.

Ground Mounted Solar Regulations

Alderman Bateman researched Peoria’s solar regulations and included that information in the agenda packet. He would like fencing required around all ground mounted solar, to limit the height of the panels and to address any glare. He’d also like to limit the lot size permitted for ground mount solar.

This will be brought back to a future COW. The Council is to look over the Peoria ordinance and to review the current City ordinance for Solar.

Consideration of adding a Deputy Fire Chief Position

The Deputy Chief will have the same job description as the Fire Chief however, this will free up the Fire Chief to do other administrative duties. The current assistant Chiefs don’t have the conduct administrative duties, they are line operational firefighters. They do take on duties when asked, but that is not in their job descriptions. There is always an immediate need that requires Chief Johnson to come in on his personal time to address it. A Deputy will be able to handle those needs just like the Chief.

Chief Johnson would like this position to be filled by September 1^st, 2025. This will not be a union position.

This item will be back to a future COW.

Annual salary increase policy for non-union employees.

The policy presented is to go by the year’s current CPI (Consumer Price Index) plus 2% with a max annual increase of 5%. It also includes to have a Compensation Study completed.

The new position of Deputy Fire Chief will need to be added to the policy.

Alderman Parrott will reach out to GOVHR for the Compensation study.

This item will be brought back to a later COW.

An additional item:

A proposal was presented for a gravel road to be installed near to the solar panel area to allow trucks to drop off equipment. This road will prevent the City from obtaining easements to access the back portion of the city property. This project will go out for bid. There is a short turnaround time for this work to be completed, so he requests for tonight is for the council to approve an expenditure of up to $60,000 from the Sewer Construction Fund. Once the initial construction of the solar panels is competed, there will be minimal traffic on this road.

This will be placed on the regular agenda.

Mayor Welch moved on to other items on the agenda.

Announcements:

Congratulations to the Lincoln Wrestling Team for winning their Regional. Lincoln will host the Individual Sectional Tournament and Dual Team meets.
Alderwoman Rohlfs asked for clarification of an ordinance from 2013 that reads no fewer than 3 members are to be on committees. Is that 3 members or 3 council members. Attorney Hoblit will look at the ordinance and pull the minutes to see what the intent of the council was.
A week is left to enroll in the 10% discount for sewer bills.
A new historical firefighter display is outside of the Council Chambers.
There is a two week DARE training course being held at the Lincoln Police Station.

Adjournment:

There being no further discussion to come before the City Council of Lincoln, Alderman Bateman motioned to adjourn, seconded by Alderwoman McClallen. All were in favor. Mayor Welch adjourned the meeting at 7:42 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted By:

Charity Hutchison, Recording Secretary